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LAMBORGHINI: THE MAN BEHIND THE LEGEND
Director: Bobby Moresco Cast: Frank Grillo, Romano Reggiani, Mira Sorvino, Hannah van der Westhuysen, Gabriel Byrne, Matteo Leoni, Patrick Brennan MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:37 Release Date: 11/18/22 (limited; digital & on-demand) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 17, 2022 Writer/director Bobby Moresco tries to tell the story of the personal and professional lives of Ferruccio Lamborghini, the son of a farmer who became one of the premier manufacturers of luxury cars in the world, in less than 90 minutes. As a result, Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend barely scratches the surface, obviously. The narrative is basically divided in two. The first sections tells how a younger Ferruccio (played by Romano Reggiani) built a tractor company with little but an idea and a lot of passion. The second follow a 20-or-so-year-older Ferruccio (played by Frank Grillo) in the process of building a revolutionary sports car with a lot more than just an idea. As for what happens to this man before and in between and after all of this, Moresco's screenplay is in too much of a rush to get to the character's major accomplishments to even hint at those biographical details. It's fascinating, really, just how little we learn about the man, his relationships, his business, and his life in general over this course of this condensed tale. A couple of romances figure into it. The first has a younger Ferruccio returning to his small hometown in Italy from service World War II to propose to—and, presumably, marry—his sweetheart Clelia (Hannah van der Westhuysen). In trying to design and build a better tractor with his best friend Matteo (Matteo Leioni), he neglects the wife to a tragic end and loses the pal along the way. In the 1960s, the older Ferruccio has re-married and once again neglects Annita (Mira Sorvino), the second wife, with his womanizing and his new obsession to beat Enzo Ferrari (Gabriel Byrne), who turns down Ferruccio's offer to build a better sports car. If the running—well, driving—and ham-fisted metaphor of the two car manufacturers racing each other is any indication, that rivalry seems more important to Moresco than it actually is in this biography. Indeed, the whole movie seems to be searching for some kind of easy hook, despite how minimal the information within the narrative and how limited the perspective of it are. Ferrucccio gains financial success and worldwide fame, but apparently, he loses a lot more than that along the way, if an accusatory and anticlimactic dinner with his adult son is to be believed. Since most of the plot is occupied with the younger man's financial dealings and the older man's management of his dream project, it's tough to find any emotional center to this on-the-nose theme. Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend speeds to the highlights of the subject's career, leaving everyone and everything else behind in a blur. By the end, there's almost no sense of the man, while only the appearance of some beautiful cars barely reminds us of the legend. Copyright © 2022 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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